The New Orleans Saints have a lot riding on their performance in the 2024 season. This year may be the last chance quarterback Derek Carr has to prove that he still belongs in the league and can still provide the team – or someone else – with quarterback play worthy of the top half of the league. Their head coach, Dennis Allen, could already be on the hot seat coming into the season, and that seat will only get hotter if the Saints have a slow start.
Whether the Saints come out of the gates hot or struggle to get going early is going to depend a lot on the guys in front of Carr. The Saints come into the 2024 season with a bit of a guessing game along the offensive line in the wake of Ryan Ramczyk’s season-ending injury.
With Ramczyk out for the season, the Saints have been forced to move former left tackle Trevor Penning to the right side – a position he’s never played, and are trusting Taliese Fuaga, their first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, to man the left tackle spot.
Fuaga, in particular, is going to be under the microscope this season as a rookie coming in and commanding the ever-important left tackle spot. So much so that Bleacher Report has deemed him the “x-factor” for the Saints success this season.
Kristopher Knox, an NFL analyst with Bleacher Report, is skeptical of the Saints relying heavily on the rookie, calling it a “risky proposition” and suggesting that offensive line coach John Benton may switch Fuaga and Penning’s assignment “depending on what (he) believes is the optimal lineup”. If Fuaga struggles early, that’s a real possibility.
Going into the season with two unproven tackles, in a year where you need to take the next step in a division that should be there for the taking, is not a great situation for the Saints to find themselves in. The NFL is perpetually a next-man-up league. For the Saints, Fuaga and Penning are the next man up.